Telephone booth door hanger construction



June 9, 1959 R. B. NAWMAN 2,889,572

TELEPHONE BOOTH DOGR HANGER CONSTRUCTION Filed Jan. 25, 1957 INVENTOR. Pom/5 8. MMMA/v United TELEPHONE BOOTH DOOR HANGER CONSTRUCTION 2 Claims. (CI. 16-=-89) This invention relates to telephone booth. door hangers and particularly to hangers for telephone doors of the type which consist of a pair of hinged panels, one of which is hingedly supported by the corner post of the booth and the other of which is supported by a rolling member or trolley which rides in a track along the top of the door opening.

The door hanger which is disclosed and claimed herein is particularly adapted to be used in connection with the telephone booth construction disclosed in my copending application Serial No. 486,507, filed February 7, 1955, for A Telephone Booth Construction, although of course it is to be understood that it need not be restricted to a booth of that type as will hereinafer more fully be made clear.

As is well known to those familiar with telephone booths, they must be constructed in such a manner that they may be easily erected and serviced. Moreover booths of this kind must be substantially foolproof and must be constructed in such a manner that they can withstand substantial abuse.

Since doors are opened and closed by each customer, receive undue wear and tear and, because of vandalism or carelessness, they are subjected to considerable strain. There seems to be a particularly strong tendency among certain customers to hang on or to otherwise place an additional burden upon the door. Such increased burden frequently results in a jamming of the door which renders it useless.

It is an object of this invention to provide a door hanger construction which may not be easily or readily jammed and which may be mounted in a track which may be easily put in or removed from a typical telephone booth construction.

These and other objects of this invention will appear from the following specification taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 represents a front view of a typical telephone booth construction illustrating the door,

Figure 2 is a cross sectional detail taken along the line 2-2 of Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a view showing the roller element of my hanger when the door is being urged in one direction, and

Figure 4 is an enlarged detail similar to Figure 3 showing the roller of my door hanger when the door is being urged in the other direction.

As illustrated in Figure l a typical telephone booth construction of the type with which my invention may be utilized consists of a pair of corner posts and 11 and a suitable roof portion 12, the whole being secured together and mounted upon a base 13. The corner posts 10 and 11 and the base 13, together with the member 14 define the door opening which is adapted to be closed by a two-paneled door 16. The door 16 consists of the two panels 17 and 18, the panel 18 being hingedly connected along one edge to the corner post 10 by the hinges 19. The two panels 17 and 18 are connected by the hinges 21. The door is adapted to be opened and closed Patent and when it is opened the adjacent edges of the panels 17 and 18 are urged inwardly into the booth and the remote edge 22 of the panel 17 swings across the door opening to a position generally adjacent the corner post 10. It is apparent that the edge 22 of the door 16 should be guided in some manner so that its path is accurately defined. As is illustrated in my copending application Serial No. 486,507, filed February 7, 1955, the door may be supported by a hanger member which rides in or on a track member adjacent the cross member 14 or which is a part of the member 14. My rolling support member is adapted to be secured to the upper cross frame member 23 of the door panel 17 and may be secured thereto in any suitable manner, but is preferably secured thereto as by means of a bolt 26 which threadedly engages a boss 27. I provide a roller element 31 which is rotatably mounted upon a pin 32 which threadedly engages the boss 27 as indicated. The height of the roller 31 above the boss 27 may be controlled by the nut 33 which is threaded'upon the pin 32 and which is adapted to engage or jam against the top of the boss 27 in such a manner that, when this jamming or camming action has occurred, the pin 32 will not rotate. The roller 31 is provided with two track engaging surfaces 34 and 36 whose purposes will more fully hereinafter be described.

The track or guideway in which the roller 31 is adapted to operate is best illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 and takes the form of an inverted channel which is provided with inwardly extending flanges 39, which, in turn, are provided with rolled outwardly extending lips 41. The inwardly extending flanges 39 provide an elongated slot 42. The track 38 is adapted to be mounted in an elongated slot in the lower wall of the cross member 14. The track 38 is preferably made of material which is of sufliciently light gauge that the lips 39 may be urged toward each other so that the track may be inserted into the slot in the member 14 by a mechanic. Upon releasing the pressure which tends to urge the lips 39 together, the track 38 will resume the position illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 so that the rolled lips 41 will engage the edges of the slot in the member 14 as indicated in the drawings. Each end of the track member 38 is provided with upstanding tabs 43 by which the same may be secured to the roof portion 12 as by means of the screws 44. When the track 38 is properly mounted the inner side walls 38a and 3812 are spaced apart in such a manner that the distance between them is greater than the diameter of the roller 31 at 34. The width of the slot 42 is likewise greater than the diameter of the portion 36 of the roller 31, and the roller 31 and the track 38 are so dimensioned that when the surface 34 engages the wall 38a for example that portion 36 of the roller 31 will likewise engage one side Wall of the slot 42. This is made clear from examination of Figures 3 and 4.

In addition it will be noted that the inturned flanges 39 are turned at an angle of approximately 30 to the vertical side walls 38a and 38b. In this manner it will be noted that when weight is placed upon the door and the door is not moved, the roller 31 will occupy generally a position illustrated in Figure 2 with the result that little or no rolling action will occur. However, the points of engagement of the roller 31 in the track 38 are reduced to a minimum so that there is little or no opportunity for jamming. However, when the door is urged in one direction or the other there is a tendency for the roller 31 to roll up the slope of the flange 39 until the parts 34 and 36 of the roller 31 engages the side walls 33a or 38b and the sides of the slot 42. Then the device is free to roll. Should a customer be opening or closing the door (which would cause the roller 31 to occupy either of the positions illustrated in Figure 3 or 4) and should the customer then place excessive Weight upon the door the roller 31 will occupy the position illustrated generally in Figure 2. However, jamming will not occur because once the weight on the door has been removed, and the door be further opened or closed, the roller will again occupy the position illustrated in Figures 3 and 4. Thus jamming is eliminated and a free rolling door hanger is assured.

I claim:

1. In a hanger construction for a folding door mounted in a doorway of the type having a horizontal member defining a portion of the doorway, the horizontal member having an elongated slot therein; the hanger construction comprising a guideway having spaced parallel vertical sidewalls, a connecting top wall, inclined sidewalls adjoining said parallel sidewalls and defining an elongated slot therebetween extending the length of the guideway, means carried by the inclined sidewalls adapted to detachably engage said horizontal member and to hold said guideway in such a manner that the slot in the guideway is disposed within the slot in the horizontal member, and a roller adapted to be rotatably mounted on the folding door so that the axis of rotation of the roller is substantially parallel to the vertical sidewalls of the guideway, the roller being disposed within said guideway and having a vertical annular guideway engaging surface substantially parallel to the axis of rotation of the roller, the spacing between said parallel sidewalls aesmra of the guideway being substantially greater than the diameter of the roller, said roller having a lower surface lying in a substantially horizontal plane, the roller normally resting on the inclined sidewall portions when the door is in a stationary position and forming a line contact with the inclined sidewalls to prevent jamming of the roller in the guideway upon movement of the folding door, said roller being moved out of engagement with the inclined sidewalls and into engagement with one of the parallel sidewalls of the guideway when the door is moved between open or closed positions.

2. A hanger construction as in claim 1 wherein said means carried by the inclined sidewalls of the guideway adapted to detachably engage the horizontal member consists of outwardly turned lips, the guideway being deformable to permit bending of said guideway to move said lips out of and into engagement with the marginal portions of the horizontal member defining the slot in the horizontal member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,602,555 Sebastian Oct. 12, 1926 1,712,588 Small May 14, 1929 1,824,621 Phillips Sept. 22, 1931 2,208,166 Sherron July 16, 1940 

